thrilling scenes during the riots—attack on the state

militia—sensational arrest of one of the

riot leaders.

in july, 1877, during the railroad strike on the pennsylvania railroad, at pittsburg, pa., a riot was in progress on sunday, the 21st, which had started on the day previous. the rioters were led by the loosest characters in and about pittsburg. a great many of them were rolling-mill employes and miners from mines and mills adjacent to pittsburg, who were in sympathy with the railway [pg 230]employes, who had gone out upon a strike on all the lines operated by the pennsylvania company. all of these lines were tied up. not a car or locomotive had been moved for several days prior to the breaking out of the riot. the police force of pittsburg was disorganized, many of them being in sympathy with the strikers. the railroad company's officers then applied to the sheriff of allegheny county. the sheriff being unable to cope with the rioters or to protect the company's property, called up gov. harttranft, then governor of pennsylvania. the state militia of pennsylvania was ordered to pittsburg and placed under the command of gen. nagley. many of the militia were in sympathy with the strikers and laid down their arms and joined the rioters, whereupon the governor ordered re-enforcements from philadelphia. the re-enforcements consisted of two regiments, the first and second regiments of state militia. they arrived in pittsburg on saturday afternoon, july 20, from philadelphia, and were in charge of brig. gen. brinton. these men left the passenger coaches at union station at pittsburg, and were marched north to the railroad yards, which were full of freight and passenger cars, up to 28th street. at 28th street there was a mob from eight to ten thousand men, armed with guns, pistols and clubs, who closed in on the philadelphia troops, opening fire upon them and disarming a number of them with their overwhelming force. these troops displayed great coolness and nerve under the circumstances, but the numbers were so overwhelming against them that they were forced to take refuge in the pennsylvania railroad company's roundhouse at 28th street. here they held the position until a late hour saturday night. in the meantime the rioters had found a number of carloads of crude petroleum oil, which were on[pg 231] a side track north of the company's roundhouse, where the soldiers had taken refuge. the roundhouse being on a lower spot of ground than the main grade of the yards, the track where these cars were standing formed a down grade, running directly into the roundhouse. the mob released the brakes on two of the cars filled with oil, there being a number among them who knew just how to operate the cars and switches. these cars were turned loose down the grade, were set on fire, and ran into the roundhouse, where the oil exploded, thereby setting fire to the roundhouse, and the troops who had taken refuge there were compelled to flee for their lives, although they retreated in fairly good order. their line of retreat was through a portion of pittsburg then known as pipe town. the troops were assaulted from windows and roofs of houses with bricks, guns and pistols. many of them were maimed and wounded. thus they found their way to the sharpsburg bridge, which crossed the allegheny river north of pittsburg. the remainder of the philadelphia troops formed a camp on the hills just outside of sharpsburg, on sunday morning, where they remained until a sufficient number of re-enforcements had assembled in pittsburg to control the situation, when the philadelphians were again ordered back to pittsburg. here they remained with the other troops until the trouble was over. in the meantime, on saturday night, after the annihilation of the philadelphia troops, the rioters went through the business portion of pittsburg, breaking into hardware stores, pawnshops and in fact any other establishment they were liable to find firearms or ammunition. a reign of terror existed in pittsburg from the fatal saturday until late sunday evening. during the forenoon of sunday the rioters turned their attention to the other cars in the [pg 232]railroad yards. the writer saw men and women breaking into cars, and in many instances saw them leaving the yards; some instances they would have a bolt of silk, fine laces, or other fine dress goods in their arms, with possibly a ham or side of bacon on top. they, being heavily laden with this loot, would attempt to climb the abrupt bluffs which bordered the railroad yards on the east side, would lose their foothold on the steep bluffs and come tumbling down, and women and men, bacon and silk, would be found in a heap at the bottom.

about ten o'clock on sunday morning the mob found a carload of tinware in the yards, and about the same time they also discovered two carloads of liquor nearby. they at once captured all of the tin cups and other vessels that would hold liquor from the carload of tinware. they also dumped out the barrels of liquor on the ground, turned the head up and used coupling links to knock the head out of the barrels. they then helped themselves to the liquor with the tin vessels which they had taken from the carload. the liquor consisted of brandy, whiskey and other strong liquors. having been engaged in rioting the night before, probably not having stopped long enough to get any breakfast, they drank this liquor like thirsty people, and were soon overcome with the effects of it. in a short space of time the more violent of the mob fell by the wayside, stupefied with the overdose of liquor. the citizens learning of the general drunk, got together all sorts of wagons, carts, and other vehicles that could be found and commenced to gather up these drunken people, who were utterly helpless, and conveyed them to the jail and lock-ups. these places were filled with them in a short time. in fact, this was the first and only time in which the excessive use of strong drink was instrumental in quieting one of the[pg 233] most desperate and destructive riots ever engaged in in pittsburg, or any other city.

at about eleven o'clock on sunday morning, a man by the name of james boyd, who hailed from mansfield, pa., which is a small place about seven miles from pittsburg, at which place his father kept a hotel, or what was called in those days, a tavern (james boyd had been in pittsburg a short time prior to the time of the railroad strike, working as a barkeeper for charlie duchon, whose place of business was directly across from the union station at pittsburg), with a number of others was seen by the writer to roll a barrel of refined petroleum oil into the waiting room of the union station. there he turned the barrel up on end and knocked out the head, then turned the barrel down again, letting the oil run all over the floor of the waiting room. he then took a handful of waste that he had secured from one of the engines, set fire to it and threw it into the oil on the floor, which ignited instantly, enveloping the entire inside of the union station in flames. the writer witnessed this, and the direction taken by mr. boyd. that evening boyd, with others, set fire to a large grain elevator, which was situated just south of the union station at that time. the roundhouse and general offices of what was known as the pan handle railroad were also burned in the same manner. all this occurred on sunday and before the carloads of tinware and liquor had been discovered and the general drunk had occurred.

boyd left pittsburg sunday evening, after the citizens had summoned courage and had begun to gather up the drunken rioters, as before mentioned. he hurried to mansfield to his father's house. the writer quietly followed him to mansfield, and after locating him at that place returned to pittsburg. after things had quieted[pg 234] down, and martial law was being rigidly enforced, the following wednesday i went to a livery stable where i hired a pair of horses and a light spring wagon, with top and side curtains, which would readily be taken for a country man's huckster wagon, with a seat in front, and also a seat in the middle of the wagon. the side curtains were drawn down. i called upon sol. colson, who was a roundsman, or what is now called a sergeant of police. he was big, strong and courageous. i told him that i had boyd located, and proposed to go down to mansfield and arrest him on a charge of arson, as i had witnessed his actions on the sunday previous. i will say here that at that time i was special agent for the allegheny valley railroad, which is now a part of the pennsylvania system, as it was at that time, but operated separately from the other pennsylvania lines. i also told colson that many of the parties who had taken part in the riots belong in and around mansfield (which is now known as carnegie) and that they would, doubtless, be making their headquarters at the boyd hotel. whereupon colson said that he would be glad to go with me to assist in the arrest, but that we ought to have another man with us, and he suggested a policeman by the name of john moran. we found moran. both colson and moran were dressed in citizens' clothes. we placed moran on the rear seat of the vehicle, colson occupying the front seat with me, and i did the driving. it was raining when we left pittsburg, it being about eleven o'clock on wednesday. we drove down to mansfield, a distance of seven miles, and located on the bank of a creek.

in going from pittsburg to mansfield the ground is rolling and hilly, and near mansfield we came to the top of a hill, which is at least a mile long and quite a steep grade from the top of this hill all the way into mansfield.[pg 235] the road being fairly straight, we could see a large crowd of men assembled in front of and near the boyd tavern. as we neared the crowd i recognized many whom i had seen rioting in pittsburg on the saturday and sunday before. they were apparently prolonging the spree that they had begun in that city, whooping, hollering, wrestling and fighting. they were a motley crowd, and in fact what might be called a dangerous looking crowd. we drove up to within a hundred feet of the front of the boyd tavern. right here i want to say that moran, the patrolman we had brought with us, was not occupying the rear seat in the wagon. he had been on duty continuously since the beginning of the trouble, and was without doubt much fatigued. when we had gotten almost to mansfield i heard a thud in the rear of the wagon. turning around i noticed that moran had gotten down from the seat he had been occupying and was lying on the bottom of the wagon. colson thought that he was exhausted and had fallen from the seat. i went to arouse him, and to my surprise found a pint bottle which had been filled with whiskey. moran had this bottle of whiskey with him and had doubtlessly drank copiously of the contents. he was dead drunk, but on account of our close proximity to mansfield at the time of this discovery, it was too late for either colson or myself to change our plans, so we drove up to the place before mentioned, and leaving colson, after turning the team around and facing them towards pittsburg, i went into the boyd tavern to reconnoiter. in the barroom i found men standing at the bar three and four deep, and trying to elbow up to get drinks. old man boyd (jim's father), jim himself and two other barkeepers, sleeves rolled up and perspiring—you will remember this was in july—were serving cheap whiskey as rapidly as[pg 236] possible. i elbowed my way up to one corner of the bar where jim boyd was working. i caught his eye and said to him in an undertone that i had a friend in my wagon just outside in front of the house, who had been suddenly stricken with the cramp colic, and asked him if he would kindly fix me up a good big drink of brandy and jamaica ginger, and that i would appreciate it very much if he would. i handed him a two dollar note, telling him to keep the change. he placed the two dollar note in his white vest pocket and good naturedly said, "i will fix something warm and bring it out right away." he fixed up a drink, and in the meantime i went back to the wagon, and as the curtains were all buttoned down, of course moran was out of sight. returning to the wagon i hurriedly told colson that when this man came out with the drink i would be busily engaged fixing the harness and i would tell him (boyd) that the sick friend was in the wagon. when boyd came out i told him to hand the drink to colson. colson told him our friend was in the bottom of the wagon, whereupon boyd raised himself up on the front wheel to see the sufferer. colson caught him by the collar, and i boosted him by the heels into the wagon at the same time. colson released his hold on the reins and i had hard work to grab the front end of the wagon, but somehow managed to land on the front seat. colson had dragged boyd into the wagon box and was holding him down on top of moran, who was still soundly sleeping. colson had fallen into the wagon with boyd and he let the reins go down between the horses. by the time i got on the wagon the horses were running away at full speed towards pittsburg right through the crowd that was standing around the tavern.

in the meantime, the drunken rioters on the outside,[pg 237] thinking the team was running away, started in pursuit. it was all the way uphill, therefore i had but very little trouble slowing the team down to a natural pace, as they soon became winded.

as the team started old man boyd and some of the soberer spectators had noticed boyd being pulled into the wagon, and immediately procured horses and started in pursuit. our team being winded on account of the steep grade, the men on horseback were gaining on us rapidly. all this time colson was holding boyd down on top of moran, and boyd was making a desperate fight. he was a wiry young fellow, although no match for colson. however, it was just about all colson could do to keep him in the wagon. the writer had to do the driving and look after the team, and was not prepared to engage with the pursuers, who were armed with pistols and guns, but fortunately, by the time we had reached the grade, half a mile up the hill, one of those terrible pennsylvania thunder showers burst forth with wind and rain, and it struck us fair in the face; in fact, with such force that our horses stopped and would hardly go against the storm. of course, when this storm struck us it also struck our pursuers, compelling them to go back. the result was that we arrived in pittsburg in due time with our prisoner and lodged him in jail.

moran had never once become cognizant of what had happened, and was still in oblivion when colson and i delivered him to his wife in pittsburg.

colson was moran's superior in rank, but in view of the fact that moran had always been faithful, and was overcome by fatigue through overwork during the several days and nights preceding the occurrence just related, did not prefer charges against him. moran sobered up and did[pg 238] many years of good service on the police force afterwards.

this, i think, was one of the most exciting arrests i ever participated in. boyd was tried in the courts of pittsburg in due time, and was sentenced to the penitentiary for fourteen years.

the pennsylvania railroad company brought suit against the county of allegheny and the city of pittsburg for damages to their property sustained during the riots in pittsburg. this case was later tried in beaver county, pa., and the railroad company was awarded a judgment against the county of allegheny and the city of pittsburg for $2,000,000 damages.

the railroad company, needing ready cash at the time, sold this judgment of two million dollars to a syndicate, which consisted of wm. h. thaw, of pittsburg, and nine other representative men of pittsburg for $1,600,000 ready cash. the city of pittsburg and county of allegheny then issued bonds for the two million dollar judgment. these bonds were to mature in twenty years, with legal interest payable annually, so that the purchaser of these bonds made four hundred thousand dollars net on the purchase, as well as the interest on the bonds, all of which has long since been payed by the tax payers of the county of allegheny and the city of pittsburg.